Female Genital Mutilation

The World Health Organization has been an active voice for restraint against FGM in many Third World nations. This is their FGM page, which includes current information on prevalence rates, various governmental and non-governmental programs, a transcript of the 1995 report of their FGM Working Group delivered in Geneva, and a bibliographic database on FGM research.

This is the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) web site for FGM, which includes an extensive but readable introduction to the subject and their work in the field. For over 20 years now, UNFPA has been running some of the world's most effective health care and reproductive education programs throughout the Third World, including their REACH program in sub-Saharan Africa which has done much in Uganda where my wife and I are active and have a goddaughter who has received REACH education. Among other things, UNFPA also runs a fistula hospital in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia which saves thousands of lives every year, and active reproductive education (including FGM education) on nearly every continent. It has been estimated that their efforts prevent millions of unwanted pregnancies and abortions worldwide each year and save the lives of many hundreds of thousands of poor women and infants. As of this writing, they are the only governmental organization in the world providing widespread FGM education programs, most of which have been quite effective.

Hanny Lightfoot Klein. Third International Symposium on Circumcision, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland. May, 1994

This paper by Hanny Lightfoot Klein was delivered to the Third International Symposium on Circumcision at the University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, in May of 1994. It provides an accurate and concise overview of some of the myths that surround the subject of circumcision (male and female) in the Third World and in developed nations.

Amnesty International has been for many years the world's premier voice against human rights violations of all kinds, including those of allegedly "civilized" First World nations. This is their FGM site which contains information about the practice, its health consequences, and what they are doing about it. Like the WHO site, this site also includes an excellent bibliographic database.